ABSTRACT
While law first and foremost favoured the family line in transmission of property in late mediaeval Norway, it simultaneously presented men and women with the opportunity to distribute parts of their property as they wished in the shape of gifts. The exchange of marital gifts between husband and wife thus became an important part of married couples’ property arrangements and allowed them to develop strategies that benefited the longest living spouse, sometimes at the cost of their respective kin groups. Property could pass from one kin group to another permanently or temporarily through the gift institution, and among the landowning elite the property changing hands could be of immense value. This chapter discusses how married couples of the landowning elite organised their landed property and the role marital gift exchange played in these arrangements. In particular, it explores widows’ access to their marital gifts in the wake of their husbands’ deaths and the challenges and opportunities they faced in retaining these gifts in varying contexts. As such, this chapter contributes to the discussion of what role gender and social status played as women pursued securing their economic interests in the late Middle Ages.
